Why
by Life's a cookie
Summary: Before the events of the Meteor, there is a story of a past long buried in time. One step back, twenty-five odd years prior... Of an Angel ensnared by a Monster... Of a Mortal bound to the Angel...


_A/N: _The plot had been bugging me relentlessly for a really really long time and it was the first time i had a rather clear idea as to where this story was headed... the problem had always been that I lost interest in writing or had terribly long writer's block and just couldn't figure out what else to write or how it was going to develop. I didn't know what was coming up and blah.... so this time i spent REALLY long researching all the confusing time lines of the godlike masterpiece that is FFVII and planned out quite a bit already. I hope that you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed thinking about it. Oh, do excuse any inaccuracies that you should find. I'm sticking to whatever i've decided on and so i pray that you'll go along with it for the purpose of the story. Happy reading!

_Pairing: _Sephiroth / OC male (I know it's an OC but please give me a chance!)

_Disclaimer:_ I'll just say this once. All characters, companies, etc. mentioned are property of Square Enix barring any others that may be found. All rights go to them, i only make use of imagination and the wonderously crafted world of FFVII to present the past that was never fully explained.

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It is sometime in summer, Midgar. There is still ten years till the start of the liquidation of Wu Tai. Akin to a fallen angel, the greatest evil the world should ever face is still a child. He has seen five calendars being thrown away.

The boy had always been both intrigued and terrified of the nigh inhuman shrieks that frequently marked that particular laboratory amidst the hundreds that filled the basements of the famed company. He had come to discover a countless number of new things that were the results of experiments and the like down at the Research Department - but that had only been the case in recent years. For quite a while, he had thought them natural only to realize their non-existence in the world above. Not to mention, of course, that he figured the numerous blank stares at his descriptions had been a dead giveaway too…

Seeing abnormal specimens was something the boy had gotten used to but whatever was responsible for that horrid noise had a vice grip on him. On hind sight, 'horrid noise' wasn't actually suitable in the least. It had sounded more like the anguished cries of some ethereal being. Although what experience the boy had to say as much… well, a child's imagination should bear no boundaries. Concluding by means of what his childlike deduction could offer, it was not a 'horrid noise' but definitely the tortured lilt the voice possessed - that surreal echo - that had him enraptured.

The boy was drawn to the room like a moth was to light. With practiced ease he would slip past any bothersome adults and sneak to the waiting room attached to the front of laboratory 676; every laboratory had its own waiting area too. On tiptoe, he'd try his luck at catching but a faint glimpse through tinted windows. Experience had taught him to keep weary of impending footsteps from outside but for all the times he'd snuck in, nobody had ever barged in on him unexpectedly. It was as if the things within were top secret and privy to that male professor and well, his mother. He supposed if matters ever got complicated he might succeed in wheedling his way out by saying he'd wanted to see her…despite the blatant instructions not to lest he was about to die or something… okay so maybe this would never work, but the boy tucked this partially completed excuse away for further refining.

Unfortunately, tinted as they were, he could see naught though that didn't stop him from trying almost everyday. It sure beat being cooped up studying – he already knew the stuff by heart! If it was any form of consolation, though more sick than anything if at all, hearing the unmuffled screams and sounds so close was thrilling and still managed to get his adrenaline pumping. It accentuated the fact that his presence was illegal. Like so many cases, knowing the heavy consequences for doing something that was forbidden tended to spur people into doing just that. Being so close to what a scant few had permission to prod into; the terrible ease of being found out simply spelt 'DANGER' in large, bold letters.

But he was still a child, ignorance was still forgivable and mistakes overlooked. Besides, what child was to think in so pragmatic a manner?

For an unfathomable reason one day, he had had enough. Seeking to soothe his curiosity as to what lay behind the steel door and tinted windows, he set about so thorough a search for an opening as never before. He had ideas, speculations of what was being kept a secret: perhaps a siren fused with a banshee; a female Frankenstein – an entirely new species altogether, something out of this world. If he allowed himself to consider his wildest imaginations, the image conjured seemed somewhat akin to the bedtime horror stories he heard of. Like the moogeyman with its yellowed, drool dripping jowl and mangy furred… …

In his search, he was barely able to make a frantic escape into hiding as that very steel door he had been inspecting swung open to reveal a hasty sweep of stained white as that male professor charged out. From his cramp spot just behind that door, he released a soft sigh. That had been too close for comfort.

Gradually regaining his senses, his mind slowly processed the fact that his ticket in was being presented to him on a silver platter. With unmasked excitement, he cautiously peeked around before quietly stepping in and for the first time, he saw the interior of a laboratory he found instant disgust for. A harsh white light illuminated everything beneath it; blaring down on at least a dozen cylindrical tanks filled with a sickly green fluid in which floated a variety of mutated or fused creatures. A desk stood to the right, cluttered with folders that would dominate his small hands should he ever hold them. This was, in itself, a worrying thought for he had a feeling that amidst the raging excitement that was occupying him, he would eventually succumb to the curiosity that lingered on those folders once he could actually return to thinking straight, of course.

What did seize his undivided attention was what lay in the very middle, subject to the harshest of the light.

Smatterings of red tainted the floor and white sheets. Blood, as it registered in his mind, also glistened off the sharp, stainless steel apparatus that littered a tri-layer metal trolley.

The boy didn't know whether to be disappointed or stunned in awe as he finally discovered the answer to his theories. It was nothing like he had imagined at all. It was far too pure to fit into any of the grizzly thoughts he'd harbored.

There, stretched out, fastened by restraints and utterly unmoving was the most perfect and angelic being he had ever laid eyes on. It seemed sculpted from the perfect mold of a human. He would never have found a definite answer as to which gender the being fell under had it not been for the stark nudity. Despite being supposedly male, the child could certainly make a believable female. He had almost shoulder length platinum blond hair that seemed a halo as it fanned about a deceptively sharp face in spite of remnants of baby fat. He had discernibly sharp, angular features and pink lips as befittingly pale as the whole body. The child that he figured to be younger than himself was really flawless… almost inhumanly so.

He hadn't much time to further contemplate anything else - like why there were so many tubes and needles sticking out of the small body - for he realized one detrimental point he had overlooked in his haste. His mother.

"For goodness sake… With all his nagging about secrecy and discipline, the door – who?!" An auburn haired woman tsked as she pushed open a door at the far corner – something he had also failed to notice. The boy did not like the way his mother's voice reached so high a pitch with the last word.

Before either could say anything, a whiny voice shrieked in malicious triumph from behind him. Oh Gaia, if his _thorough _strategizing (of sorts) would crumble to such an extent, he should have just walked right in LONG AGO.

"Miscreant! So you finally went on with it, did you? You little brat! I've been watching you, boy. I've been just WAITING for you to do something this stupid. How DARE you trespass!"

The boy now fully comprehended why he had heard such terrible stories of this slime ball.

"Just wait till SHINRA hears about this! Oooh! And you…!" The greasy bespectacled weasel nearly screamed, his focus now shifted to his assistant.

"He's yours, isn't he! I never knew you'd let him carry on while knowing the consequences. How sadistic a nature," the man babbled on, clearly enjoying how his accusations made the woman blanch.

"Professor, I assure you, I never knew a thing of what he was up to. I just left the storeroom and suddenly spotted him there! Perhaps… please. Please don't report this."

"It's not called [TOP SECRET] for nothing, you fool."

"I-I know that, sir. I can pull him out of school. H-have him under surveillance, never to be left the chance to do – Professor Hojo, please have mercy. I really need this job and reporting would – "

The man named Hojo smirked, quite obviously pleased with the control he held over another. His assistant was practically BEGGING.

"Why. Should. I?"

There was a pause in which both mother and child thought the same thing.

"Well?" Hojo asked in his screechy, disturbingly honeyed voice. As much as he was a man of great patience when it came to his work and did truly love to watch people squirm at his words, he LOATHED asking or being asked to repeat whatever was said. Oh the aggravation!

"Speak up!" Hojo whined.

"Y-You were the one who left the door open and people are technically allowed in the waiting area. Sir."

If his adrenaline had not been on overdrive and the situation so tense, the boy would have burst out in a fit of giggles at the pathetic specimen of a male. The poor sod looked like he'd swallowed magma.

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"Get over here! If you so much as spill a drop, boy, I will SKIN you alive."

The boy cringed inwardly at the threat. He had a feeling it was far from being empty. It had been a week since he was chained, almost literally, to serving the horrid excuse for a human. Clinging onto almost every single offer his mother had made in order to keep the little breach a secret, Hojo had taken full advantage of it. After multiple aptitude tests to contradict doubts the scientist had had (though he'd never admit just how wrong he'd been proven), the boy was deemed (albeit reluctantly) usable. In truth, it was a true rarity for a mere ten year old to be thus mature and rational in thought; few moved as he did – which was with care and a hint of calculation subtly noticeable in all his actions. It was like everything was thought through to an extent unthinkable of one so young. His mind was palpably far more advanced than his body; he knew so much and thought of things no ten year old did.

Hojo had next to never encountered such a human before. Given, of course, he had not been able to get hold of a test subject of such an age… until now, that is. Now, he had a 'play thing' he could poke and prod to his heart's content. A means to test with no hindrance whatsoever. The perfect experiment. Project Jenova had spun off Project S which had been untainted from the start; like a blank canvas just waiting for his use. As far as accuracy could go, the project was it. For the first time, Hojo was able to chart the progress of his experimentations on something from its absolute beginnings. It was his to control and not some secondhand trash all others tended to be by nature as they are found. No, he had created this from SCRATCH.

The errand boy was proving to be useful as time passed and he sort of fell into a routine. If he was not mistaken, he could have sworn that the boy seemed almost content if not happy with this job many considered menial. Despite being torn from a more child-friendly environment like school, which was filled with cheer, friends, blah, the boy seemed to be fine with facing hours of relentlessly harsh treatment from him instead. Perhaps he had not fitted in to begin with and didn't have friends. What amused him even further was his assistant's silence throughout the almost cruel and evil manner in which he treated her son. One would have expected her to be more protective. He assumed she must really have need of the job as badly as she had said and so didn't speak out against him.

But that didn't explain her almost non-existent interaction with her son. It was like she didn't know he was there. Funny since she'd defended him during the incident. Unless all along it was in her interest of not getting fired should the boy have been reported that prompted her defending. Ah well… trivial, trivial worthless musings. As long as the two better served his work, everything else could shove off.

--- --- ---

To him, being taken away from school meant nothing. To him, what he was made to do, this 'punishment' was for more interesting. Now, he had endless opportunities to satisfy his one, burning curiosity – the Angel.

He was like a mystery just waiting to be solved. Far more enticing, far more than what he could say about his life prior, anyway.

For the almost three weeks that he had worked here, the boy had not yet heard a single coherent word from the Angel. He would have eventually assumed he was incapable of anything but screaming had it not have been for that fortunate instance.

Much to the dismay of Hojo, the President had called for the monthly update on all subjects in the department. As protocol decreed, all members involved needed to be present so there was NO way out .He loathed the idea that the brat would be alone with his prize experiment but alas, Hojo could but leave a very serious threat that promised a whole lot of pain if he tried anything stupid.

The moment the doors were locked shut, the boy released a sigh he had not known he'd held. Clenching his relatively small fists, he turned to face the operation table with renewed zest. He could not afford to mess up this rare chance.

Daily, the androgynous being would be subject to test after test and depending on the duration required for observation, he would otherwise be suspended in one of those gross green fluid filled cylindrical tanks or confined to a small room with pristine walls decorated with the bare essentials; sources of light came from the large tubes that lined the ceiling. The boy could imagine how many times more loneliness must be felt by the Angel.

Edging fractionally closer with each shuffle of feet, the boy nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice so uncannily musical, flittered through the silence. It had been the first time he'd heard the Angel _speak_.

"Why?"

The boy almost didn't catch those words, soft as they were.

"W-why what?"

Shocking emerald eyes that seemed to glow bore into him as the child turned his head.

"Why is a child doing this to another?"

The boy struggled to find a logical, justifiable response.

"I don't want mother to lose her job… This is my punishment so I have to follow that professor's every word."

"Mother? … I thought the female's name was Ellia."

It had been a genuinely innocent question, the peculiarity even more pronounced at the choice of words, which was all the more why the boy had to blink. Twice. It couldn't be possible for the child not to know such fundamentals!

"Mother is a term. Not so much a name… For a parent… Those who care for you." The boy trailed off, growing hesitant at the entirely blank face. He supposed having lived in captivity, for lack of a better word, since birth, as he had weaseled out from his mother, the child probably knew only what little social behaviors Hojo wanted him to know.

Which would likely mean that it extended no more the range of a teaspoon.

"…So that _person_ is my parent…?" It was spoken with a startling amount of venom he had not expected to come from the Angel.

"You don't – I don't mean… That is, do you know who made you…? Who you are? Who your parents are? Parents are people referred to as mother and father - "

"I don't know."

Regardless of whether the child fully understood or truly knew the significance of parents, those three words nonetheless made his heart clench painfully. Nobody so young should be deprived of such basic necessities; of so normal a concept people often take it for granted. No one so young should have to grow up learning and associating 'care' with the nearly inhuman actions of Hojo. That much, at least, the boy knew from digging into the recesses of his mind for memories of a seemingly distant past when his mother actually acknowledged his existence more and his father actually lived.

"T-Then I'll take care of you! I probably can't do anything to stop them," the boy remarked with a jab of a thumb in a general direction "but I would do my best to help you!"

A tiny frown marred porcelain perfection before quickly disappearing. It was understandable though. Who would willingly accept such a proposition when it did nothing to solve the direr of problems? It was almost taunting to have someone who as good as swore to protect you, do naught but stand idly by as you were experimented on.

"Promise." The boy tried further still, showing his little pinkie to seal the pact. Manually, he proceeded to lift the Angel's too. "Pinkie promise. It's how we'll make sure this agreement is not fake." Trying to soothe _his _Angel, he gave his most benign smile. Seconds crawled by and no reaction came from the platinum haired child. Just as the boy's expression began to falter, a tiny, miniscule quirking of lips caught his attention.

"What do I call - "

"You can call me Mira. Mirakaen is too long and awkward," he chortled. "What about you? What's your name? All I have seen is 'Project S'."

Mira caught a murmur, something too faint to make out. Curiosity not yet sated, the boy repeated his question once more.

"I… my name is… Sephiroth."

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_A/N:_ I hope you liked this introduction. For any reviews that you may grace me with (wink), please and thank you! =) till next time!


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